DART, North Texas' largest public transportation agency, expects ridership to fall by more than 5% next year, even as other North Texas transit agencies report gains.

David Leininger, interim president and CEO of Dallas Area Rapid Transit, said DART's projection calls for ridership to fall from about 55 million trips this year to 52 million next year if the agency does not change course.

Leininger did not identify a single cause for DART's decline. He pointed to rising car ownership and the loss of riders since the COVID-19 pandemic.

The warning came Tuesday during a panel at the Infrastructure Summit in Irving, where leaders from DART, the Denton County Transportation Authority, Trinity Metro and the North Central Texas Council of Governments discussed the future of public transportation in a region that continues to add people, jobs and congestion. A recurring theme was that the agencies need to work together more closely to create a more cohesive regional system that is easier for riders to navigate.

The agencies carried more than 63.5 million trips combined last year, according to the panel moderator.

Paul Cristina, CEO of the Denton County Transportation Authority, said ridership has grown by 8% among the agency's member cities for two consecutive years. Ridership has tripled in Lewisville since DCTA changed its service mix, doubled in Highland Village and increased by 50% in Denton over the past several years, he said.

Richard W. Andreski, president and CEO of Trinity Metro, said TEXRail ridership has doubled in the four years since he took his current position. The agency is on track to reach 1 million rides in a single year by the end of September, he said.

Cristina attributed DCTA's growth to changes in its service mix and the agency's use of ridership data to adjust service. Andreski credited TEXRail's growth to reliability and frequency.

DART is trying to win riders back

Leininger said DART needs to recover lost riders while finding new ones. That will require the agency to rethink how it serves its 12 member cities, he said, because each community has different transportation and economic development needs.

"Ridership development has to be job number one," Leininger said.

Leininger said DART also needs to develop more city-specific services and understand what each community wants. The agency recently released rider data by city and mode as part of that effort, he said.

DART has 12 member cities after a several communities recently considered leaving the system.

Nadine Lee, who had led DART since 2021, left the agency after that turbulent period, which included disputes over funding, governance and service. Six member cities called elections on whether to leave DART, but the agency reached agreements with several. Ultimately, only Highland Park voted to exit the transit network.

DART's board selected Nathaniel Ford Sr. as Lee's successor in July. Ford, who has led the Jacksonville Transportation Authority since 2012, is scheduled to begin work Oct. 26.

Leininger said Ford will need to understand cities such as Irving, Plano, Carrollton and Garland have grown from simple suburban communities and are now large cities with different transportation and economic development needs.

North Texas needs one transit map

Karla Windsor, a senior program manager at the North Central Texas Council of Governments, said the agency's Transit 2.0 initiative is examining what the region would design if it were starting over.

The effort has brought elected officials together to discuss policy, legislation and funding, Windsor said. It also asks how the region can connect local systems so residents can travel across city and county lines for work, medical appointments and other essential trips.

NCTCOG programs about $215 million a year in federal transit funding for capital and operating expenses in the Dallas-Fort Worth region, Windsor said. Much of that money helps agencies maintain current service, leaving limited funding for expansion.

Separately, the Regional Transportation Council has a transit-oriented development program that helps cities and developers plan projects near transit stations, including denser housing, offices and other uses, Windsor said. The program has held four calls for projects, each offering about $40 million. Those calls usually drew requests totaling close to $1 billion, she said.

Windsor said future funding discussions could include new state tools, regional partnerships and a broader approach to managing rail operations and capital costs.

The goal is to give residents meaningful choices among driving, rail, buses and other forms of transportation, Windsor said.

For some riders, the connections are the problem

Cristina said those choices matter most for residents who cannot drive or do not have reliable access to a car.

He said the region's 65-and-older population is projected to grow by 80% over the next 25 years, compared with 50% growth for the region overall. He said one in four older residents could experience some form of mobility disadvantage.

DCTA currently provides about 50,000 trips a year for elderly and disabled residents between its member and nonmember cities, Cristina said. Other providers in Denton and Collin counties provide about 130,000 additional trips for those populations.

Cristina described one resident with cerebral palsy who works for the Internal Revenue Service. The man lives in Highland Village and works in Carrollton, but traveling between the two cities requires multiple transfers between paratransit, rail and other services.

"The best thing that I could do for him was say, 'Well, I get you on a cutaway bus to the train station, and then you can get on the DART system, and then DART can put you on a cutaway, and you can go to your job from there,'" Cristina said. "It doesn't work."

The problem is not limited to people with disabilities, the panelists said. Workers across North Texas increasingly live in one community and work in another, while the region's transit systems often operate under separate contracts, funding structures and service rules.

Cristina said the agencies should explore a common trip-planning or dispatching platform that would allow riders to move across the region without having to navigate each transit system separately.

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Andreski said Trinity Metro and DART have operated the Trinity Railway Express between Dallas and Fort Worth for more than 30 years, offering one example of agencies working together. But he said the region has often expanded rail in small, expensive increments rather than through a long-term funding pipeline.

Trinity Metro is planning an extension of TEXRail into Fort Worth's Medical District and the double tracking of the Trinity Railway Express, Andreski said. He said the agency needs more reliable funding to plan those projects efficiently.

DART also faces pressure to make rail competitive with driving. Leininger said regional rail must eventually offer travel times that are comparable to or faster than a car, especially as congestion worsens.

For now, the agencies are trying to show that transit can work when it is reliable, frequent and connected to the rest of the region.

Cristina said DCTA's future depends on responding to the specific needs of each community rather than following a fixed plan.

"It can be solved through data and analysis, and conversations, and relationship building," he said.

This reporting is part of the Future of North Texas, a community-funded journalism initiative supported by the Commit Partnership, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, the Dallas Mavericks, the Dallas Regional Chamber, Deedie Rose, Lisa and Charles Siegel, the McCune-Losinger Family Fund, The Meadows Foundation, the Perot Foundation, the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas and the University of Texas at Dallas. The News retains full editorial control of this coverage.

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